Consul
Consul Eligibility & Elections Two Consuls are elected each year, traditionally one Familial and one Companion (or Provincial). Eligibility The current laws of eligibility for standing as Consul are as follows: * Roaman Citizen of able body and mind * Must not have held the office of Consul within the past ten years * Must not hold another magistracy, either elected or appointed * Either: ** Familial and over 40 years old ** Half Familial and over 41 years old ** Over 42 years old Elections There is no limit to the number of eligible candidates who can stand for Consul, though traditionally the elders of each Familial family sanction one candidate. Candidates must state whether they are standing for the Familial or Companion seat (and cannot stand for both), but Familial candidates who stand for the Companion seat are often subject to abuse and rarely rewarded with victory unless the field of candidates is particularly poor. At least one Familial Consul must be elected by law. Usually Familial candidates who stand little chance of victory consider being selected by their family to be an honour in itself and stand down early in the campaign, endorsing another candidate with a more realistic chance. Elections are held when Roam-Beast approaches the Roaman Well, overseen by the sitting Consuls or, if both are absent from Roam, a proxy agreed by both Consuls, or, in the case of irreconcilable disagreement, the Senate. Citizens must cast their votes in Roam at whichever one of the Upper Forums is chosen by the gods, as judged by the priests of whichever god dominates that month. This limits the number of voters who can actually reach (and afford to reach) the election, intentionally or not. The election must be approved by the gods, as judged by the augurs of a sacrifice made in the forum at dawn by the Patriarch and Conduits of the dominant god, else it is delayed by a day until the augurs are good. There have been accusations of this sometimes having been used politically to delay elections, with some justification. Voters are split into eight divisions by their class and family: the five Familial families Candoam, Juctor, Qualens, Sarevir and Voriel; the Companions; Roamans (citizens of Roam and the Roaman Province of Roaman ancestry); and Provincials (citizens of the Provinces). Familial voters are usually told how to vote by the elders of their family, but are not legally obliged to obey. The vote can be made secretly by law, but Familials (and to a lesser extent Companions, Senators and magistrates) who do not declare and display their vote as it is made are generally regarded as untrustworthy cowards. The votes of each division are tallied, and the number of divisions won by each candidate announced from the stairs of the Senate Hill. The candidates with the most divisions won are then embraced by their respective current Consuls and handed the regalia of the office. They are then each, by law, the new Consuls. There have been cases of a Consul refusing to hand over the office immediately to the victorious candidate that they personally dislike, but never for more than a few days, as the popular association with tyranny is so overwhelmingly debilitating to the outgoing Consul's reputation that public order in the city is disrupted. Ceremonial Dress Consuls in peacetime wear a white toga, trimmed with gold (and their family colour), fastened with a thick, golden, braided rope to represent the weight of their Consular duties. List of Consuls Consuls who can be verified as historical figures do not extend before the sack of Roam by the Feors one hundred and sixty years ago. The list presented here is amalgamated from several sources, and increasingly accurate towards the present day. Apocryphal Consuls (-159 to -97) Following the sack of Roam, the Republic was beset by numerous wars against the Neluntians, the Straequians and the Fuscrites. The dates and names of these figures are not verifiable, as the roster of Consuls before the Second Fuscrite War was damaged in an earthquake, and restored haphazardly. Many of the Companion Consuls in particular seem to serve regular terms that imply laziness on the part of the restoring artists rather than some sort of rota system. The Familial Consuls also appear to be returned to office many more times than is currently seen as appropriate. Whether this is because of a shortage of candidates, mythologisation on the part of the restorers or a different prevailing attitude is impossible to say. Those Consuls who received a Triumph for their deeds — Stubborn Glumal Juctor-Glumal Qualens, Ruthless Hessal Candoam, Brutal Levyal Qualens-Levyal Juctor, Pillager Otibryal Voriel-Otibryal Qualens, Severe Ambyal Sarevir, Amussal Juctor-Amussal Panth, False Cuinsal Voriel-Cuinsal Oscumy and Vicious Ormanal Juctor-Ormanal Panth — almost definitely served as Consuls or Dictators at the time of their Triumphs, as can be cross-referenced with the roster of Triumphs, but that does not guarantee that Brutal Levyal served six terms over thirty years. Pre-Inachironic Consuls (-96 to -59) The Second Fuscrite War is the earliest war in Roaman history to still be reasonably well documented. Although the tales told of its heroes and battles are doubtless embellished, the names and the historicity of the people that served as Consul during the conflict can likely be trusted. Inachironic Consuls (-58 to -38) The majority of the Consuls from the start of the Inachironic War are not only well documented in records, but also still within living memory for citizens of Roam. Crylaltian War Consuls (-37 to -16) The Crylaltian War was declared the "rebirth of Roaman history" by Hessal Varagy. Some of these Consuls are still living, and nearly all of their children, and their stories — and the stories of the men on their campaigns — are the collective memory of Roam. The Civil Wars and the Tyranny that followed the generation of war against Naechis still scar the psyche of the Republic. Recent Consuls (-15 to present) Category:Stub Category:Political Office